Take Pride Winnipeg’s snow-clearing group says the demand for its services is outpacing the number of volunteers and it is going on a hiatus next season.
Between 50 and 60 homes are maintained throughout the winter months by the Snow Angels, mainly belonging to senior citizens or others unable to clear snow from their own driveways and porches.
Executive director Tom Ethans says the group can’t take on any more work this season and will be using next year to restructure the program.
“We just are revamping a few things with the organization and we need to work on getting more volunteers,” Ethans says.
The volunteer group is mainly comprised of high school and middle school kids, and Ethans says the Christmas holidays and inclement weather can make it difficult to co-ordinate everything.
Ethans says his goal isn’t to grow the service in a traditional sense, but to make people more community-conscious.
“Ideally, what we’d like to do is get people to see in their neighbourhood that there’s a senior living near them and helping them out. The next iteration of Snow Angels would be neighbours helping neighbours.”
Ethans says shovelling someone’s walk can take under half an hour, and makes an enormous difference if they’re home-bound and require others to bring them food or medicine — something he’s experienced personally.
“My neighbour came over and shovelled my walk last year after I had a heart attack because they knew I wasn’t able to,” Ethans says.
“So they did it a couple times and my kids did it a couple times and my walk was always clear.”
Potential volunteers or those unable to shovel their own walks can find out more information on the group’s website.
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